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When discussing the possible suspects of this so-called murder, the finger pointing usually turns up the norms: Was it the artists? The record executives? The producers? Or was it the audience?
In reality the whole thing sounds more like a game of Clue rather than a productive discussion of the status of today’s hip-hop culture.
But after the long discussion (or argument depending on who’s involved) many either come to the conclusion that they all pulled the trigger or that a murder was never committed and it’s all a fantasy.
During the discussion however, one rarely comes to the conclusion that hip-hop hasn’t changed from its humble beginnings during the early 1970’s.
But what has changed besides time and the headliners on the top countdowns in the hip-hop industry?
The answer is “E”: all of the above.
Trends in hip-hop style demand have driven record executives and managers to go after a new type of artist. The music producers create uses less of the traditional sampling and more of a synthetic “catchy” feel. And demographics have shown that outreach has added the non-traditional hip-hop crowd to its group of listeners.
Perhaps the cause behind all this change could be found in the “how of the how” of the discussion.
How were all of these elements able to change the game into what is here and now?
The answer to this question: New media.
It’s easy to point and criticize commercialization. But how can the artist, who many consider to be the greatest of all-time, call hip-hop dead when he, at one time, was a commercialized artist?
One thing is for certain; YouTube wasn’t around in Nas’ heyday.
Dr. Tony Anderson, PhD in hip-hop and education from the University of Delaware and a collaborator of music moguls such as The Roots and consultant to artists such as Al Green and John Legend, believes that technology has had the biggest influence on the change of hip-hop music and distribution giving everyone a chance to shine.
“I think it has an impact on our understanding of celebrity,“ says Anderson. “On one hand, people say it’s an even playing field but in reality what makes people enjoy celebrity is the fact that those people have access to things that the general public doesn’t have and so when everyone has access to the same tool, then you don’t have celebrity and the art devalues.”
With the development of YouTube, Twitter and some of today’s other social media outlets, hip-hop, like so many other concepts, has given the art of “the come-up” to just about anyone, taking competition to a whole new level.
“Musically you’re not competing with whatever’s on the Billboard Top 100, you’re competing with the history of music,” Anderson says. “So what happens is the music gets decompressed and shrunk down to phrases to try to penetrate into people’s psyche.”
Many of today’s self-entitled “hip-hop heads” claim that a “catchy hook” or a “snappy beat” has significantly led to a decrease in the quality of the music and has made a culture they once knew change beyond recognition. According to Ohio University Professor of African American Studies Akil Houston, social media may be to blame for this.
“I think when you have the internet, where anybody can produce an album and put it up on YouTube and usually what’s catchy is some hook in some guy’s beat, it doesn’t really call for you to be intellectually stimulated or involved in anyway so artists who do do that, kind of fall by the wayside,” explains Houston.
As of February 2011, eight of YouTube’s top 10 most viewed videos of all-time are music videos and five of those eight involve commercial hip-hop music in one way or another.
Houston also explains the old dichotomy between selling it and earning it.
“When hip-hop was beginning to get recognition, it came out of a tradition of, in order to be an MC, you have to go through the battles on the corners and the clubs, you don’t just get to be a great MC and tell everyone how great you are. You have to earn it.”
One of these MC’s was the legendary Buckshot of the hip-hop group Black Moon. Buckshot says that today’s hip-hop music has been simply a change in style and those who appeal to the masses, no matter how they got there, will be the ones who shine.
“I don’t think it’s right for people to start alienating them and creating political reasons why they should say, ‘ah man that ain’t this or that ain’t that.’ Give them brothers a chance and if people like it, it’s going to sell and that has always been the rule.”
Whether hip-hop’s musical edge has been lost or has simply been a style change is debatable. The reach that social media has given hip-hop is not. Hip-hop, once considered a genre specifically targeted at African Americans and Latinos even as recently as the late 1990’s, is now on the iPods of a demographic that was unattainable just a decade ago.
With the emergence of TV pop stars like Drake and music pop stars like Justin Bieber in Hip-hop music, mixtape blogs and YouTube tracks have flooded the airways of legitimate music mediums to broadcast the “rapper” side of these stars who represent a whole different audience.
Many believe social mediums have created a ripple effect of bland artistry. This effect is telling hip-hop artists, already a part of the industry, to follow this model of sell out or get out.
Sean Anthony, host of iPower 92.1’s popular show “The Power of One Voice” and one of the nation’s top hip-hop motivational speakers, believes that individuality is out and knockoff mentality is in.
“Nowadays you have a lot of copycat artists,” says Anthony. “They found one formula that works and then you have 20 other rappers or rap groups that want to pattern themselves after that particular formula. You have artists now not doing hip-hop for the love and the passion. There’s an oversaturation of people getting into hip-hop for money.”
Behind the business side of hip-hop music, unpredictability in social media outlets has made it difficult for record executives to stay afloat. Dr. Anderson, a manager of many different types of hip-hop groups, believes that this unpredictability has left record executives with an uneasy feeling.
During the 1990s a merger of the major record labels and music distributors removed much of the independence from record companies and made them more powerful in controlling content. Now, that may not be the case.
“Right now they’re terrified,” says Anderson. “Because they can’t predict what’s happening. In the past you could pump a lot of money into stuff and feed people what you wanted them to like, but that model doesn’t work anymore.”
The answer to each of these questions, at this point, is as dead-end as the finger-pointing game of Clue. No one knows what will happen to hip-hop. As long as money remains to be made, the industry will still be around.
So is that where it ends? As Jay-Z would say, “You can’t knock the hustle.” But can you? Do artists have an obligation to their artistry and has new media given a platform to just about everyone and their grandmother?
Maybe an explanation of where we’re at is best left up to the artists. Maybe you have to be a part of the culture in order to really understand what’s going on. Right, Buckshot?
“People that do it, I give them their respect. Everybody from Lil Wayne, to Mac Miller, the new cats that are coming out, Wiz Khalifa… You gotta know hip-hop in order to be in it.”
